Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-08-20
HORROR OF HORRORS

An Immense Excursion Train Plunged
Into a Diteh-Ths Dead Estimated at
over 2OOs and the Wounded at Three
Times that Eumber-Train IVreclzing for
Purpose OF Robbery Hinted At.
CHICAGO, Ill, August 1.-THE Chicago
Times, special from Forest, H., says: All
the railway horrors in the history of this
country were surpassed three miles east Of
ChatsWorth last evening, when an excursion
tram on the Toledo Peoria
d Western dropped through a
| burning bridge and over 100 people
were killed and four times tn It number were
more or less badly injured
SIX sleeping cars, day coaches
and chair cars and three baggage cars. 1t
was carrying $50 passengers, all excursion
lists, and was bound for Niagara Falls. The
train had been made up all along
the line of the Toledo, Peoria
! q Western road, and the eEcuriOnists
hailed from various parts, the bulk, hOWeV-
er, coming from Peoria. Some of the pas
sengers came from Canton, FL Paso, Wash
lngtOn and IN fact all stations along the
| line, some coming from as far west as Bur
/ hngtons Iowa.
TIRE TRIP BEGINS.
special and cheap rate had been made
for the excursion and all sorts of people
/ took advantage of 1t. When the train drew
| out OF Peoria Taft evening 1t was loaded to
/ its utmost capacity. Every berth in the SIX
/ sleepers was taken and the cars carried sixty
| people each. The train was so heavy that
/ two engines were hitched to it, and
when 1t passed this place 1t was an hour and
] a half behind time. ChatsWOrth, the next
/ station east Of here, is six miles of and the
run there was made in seven min
/ utes, so the terrible momentum of
! those fifteen cosches and two heavy
| engine shooting through space at the rate
| of a mile a minute can be understood.
No stop was made at t-ElatsWOrths and on
] and the heavy train with its living
| freight sped through the darkness of the
night. Three miles east of ChatsW0rth
is a little slough, where the
railroad track crosses dry
run about ten feet deep and fifteen wide.
/ Over this was stretched an ordinary wooden
| trestle bridge and as the excursion train
| came laundering down on II, what was the
/ horror OF the engineer on the front engine
when he saw that this bridge was on fire.
TIE FATAL PLUNGE.
| Right up before his eyes leaped the bright
l flames, and the next instant he was among
| them. There was no chance TO stop. Had
there been a warning it would have taken
! half mile to stop that Onrushlng mass of
/ wood, iron and human life, and the train
I was within 100 yards of the red messenger of
! death before they flashed their fatal signals
into the engineers face. But he passed over
I IN safety, the first engine keeping the rails.
/ As 1t went over the bridge fell beneath. 1t
could only have been the terrible speed of
I the train which saved the lives of the en-
giueer and his fireman. But the next en-
/ CINE went down and instantly the
| deed of death was done. Car mashed into
car, seats piled one on toDof another, and in
the tWlnklIng OF an eye nearly lUO persons
found instant death and fifty more were so
hurt that they could not live. AS for the
wounded, they were everywhere.
Only the sleeping coaches escaped, and
ss the startled and half dressed
passengers came tumbling out of
them they found such a scene of death as is
rarely witnessed and such work to do that
it seemed as If human hands were utterly IN
| capable. 1t lacked but i've minutes of mid
night.
THE SCENE DESCRIBED.
Down in the ditch lay the second engine,
] Engineer ACChutOck dead and Fireman
Apologize badly injured. On top piled
the three baggage cars, one on top of an
other like a child's card house after he had
swept it with his hand. Then came the six
day coaches. They were telescoped as cars
! never were before and three of them were
pressed into Just space enough for one. The
second car had mounted of its trucks,
crashed through the car ahead of IL, crush
ing the woodwork aside like finder
and lay there resting on the tops OF the
seats, while every passenger IN the front
car was lying dead and dying underneath.
Out of that car but four people came
alive. On top of the second car lay the
third, and although the latter did not cover
its bearer as completely as beneath, Its
bottom was smeared with the blood OF
its victims. The other three ears
]
but they were broken and twisted in every
conceivable way and every crushed timber
! and beam represents a crushed human frame
and a broken bone.
Of the wounded and the shrek!
of those about to die. The grOans of men
the screams of the women united to make
common sound, and above ali sounds wer,
heard the agOnizing cries Of little childreL
as In some instances they lay pinned along
side of their dead parents.
FIGHTING THE FIRE.
And here was another terrible danger ye
to be met. The bridge was still burning
and the wrecked cars were lay
: ing on it around the hercly burn
? ing embers. Everywhere IN the Wrecl
were wounded and unhurt men
women and children, whose lives could b,
saved If they could be gotten out, but who's,
death, and death in a most horrible
! form, was certain, If the TWISTED
! wood of the broken cars caugh
, fire. And to fight the fire there wal
! not drop of water and only some fifty abl
. bodied men who had still presence of mine
/ and nerve enough to do their duty. IhO
! only light was the light of the burning
bridge, and with so much of its aid the lift.
/ men went to work to subdue it. For tOu
| hours they fought like hends, and for fou
hours the victory hung IN the balance
A CHASTITY SCENE
| But finally the victory was won. The hr
was put ont after four hours of endeavOr
and as its last sparks died ava.
/ a light came up in the east Z,
take their place and dawn cam
/ upon a scene of horror. While the figh
| had been going on men had been dying anJ
| there were not so many wounded Il
/ take out Of the wreck as there ha,
| been four hours before. But il
the meantime the country had been aroused
/ help had come from ChatswOrtl, EOres
/ and Piper City, and as the dead We're lal,
reverentIy alongside of each other, out II
the cOrnheld, there were ready hands Z
take them into ChatsWOrth, while som
! of the wounded were carried to Piper CITY
| poll of the dead, while the wounded mum
| bered four times that number. The Tul
tale OF the dead cannot, however, be toll
I yet for days. ChatsWOrth wa
/ turned into a mOrgue to-day. The tow
hall, the engine house and the depot wer
all full of dead bodies, while every hOus
in the little village had 1t
: quota of the wounded. There wer
dead house, and every man and woman Wa
turned into an amateur but Jealous nurse.
No one has been taken from the unde
ears and
NOT EyEy A SOUND
! can be heard from them. 1t is feared tina
. all are dead, and the number killed is esu
mated at 200. The wounded so far numbel
+ 80
No sooner had the wreck occurred than
Z SCENE OF ROBBERY
Commenced. Some band of unspeakabl
? miscreants, heartless and with only criunina
/ instincts, was on hand, and like the guerIi
las who thrOng a battle field the night afUe
the conflict and robbed the dead of the none.
/ which they received for their meagre pay
/. | stealing even the bronze medals and rODblnl
: / from the children of heroes the other EN-
" blems of their fathers bravery, so last nigh
6 | did these human hyeuas plumber the deaf
from this terrible accident aud take even